Popular Menu

Zuma Condemns ANC Moves To Remove Him As ‘Very Unfair’

President Jacob Zuma has refused
to heed calls to step down as South African president, denouncing moves by the
ruling African Nation Congress (ANC) party to remove him as “very unfair.”

“I find it unfair, very unfair,”
Zuma said in his first public remarks, a day after the ANC formally asked him
to resign.

During more than a week of
negotiations with the ANC’s key decision-making body, Zuma said that “nobody
provided the reasons, nobody has been able to provide me with what I have
done.”

The ANC had urged Zuma to resign
due to a string of corruption allegations.

Zuma denied any wrongdoing on
Wednesday.

“There is no problem. There has
never been a problem,” he said in the televised remarks.

Earlier in the day police had
raided the home of a business family linked to the embattled leader.

Zuma says the ruling ANC has not
followed party procedures in trying to unseat him.

The ANC wants parliament to vote
on Thursday on a motion of no confidence if he does not resign on Wednesday.

“I need to be furnished on what
I’ve done,” Mr Zuma says. “What is this hurry?”

Agents from the Hawks, an elite
police investigative unit, earlier entered the compound of the Gupta family in
an affluent neighbourhood of Johannesburg.

Three people were arrested in
operations at various addresses, the South African Broadcasting Corporation
reported.

The family is suspected of using
its connections to the president to influence Cabinet appointments and win
state contracts, and has been a flashpoint for national anger over corruption
in state enterprises during Mr Zuma’s tenure.

Both the Guptas and Mr Zuma say
they have done nothing wrong.

ANC Secretary-General Ace
Magashule makes a statement after the ruling party said scandal-tainted
President Jacob Zuma must leave office .

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa
is poised to replace Mr Zuma, who could face a motion of no confidence in
parliament if he defies his party’s order to step down.

Deputy President and ANC party
president Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to take over from Jacob Zuma .

As the Gupta-linked investigation
proceeds, Mr Zuma could face corruption charges tied to an arms deal two decades
ago.

South Africa’s chief prosecutor
is expected to make a decision on whether to prosecute Mr Zuma on the old
charges, which were reinstated in 2017 after being thrown out in 2009.

In another scandal, South
Africa’s top court ruled in 2016 that Mr Zuma violated the constitution
following an investigation of multi million-dollar upgrades to his private home
using state funds.